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Railways’ airport initiative fails to attract footfall
South Western Railway operated 10 trains a day to and from the halt station when it was inaugurated on January 4, 2021. However, the services were suspended from April-end to November first week following the pandemic. When the services reopened, instead of the 10, the trains halting at the airport were reduced to two.
A suburban train to the Kempegowda International Airport, an alternative by South Western Railway to the expensive and long journey to the Bengaluru airport, had less than 2,500 passengers since its introduction in January this year.
The average cost of travelling to Kemepgowda International Airport here ranges from ₹700 to ₹1,400. Coupled with the traffic jams, a trip to Bengaluru’s international airport could be an ordeal for most commuters. More than the passengers, however, it is the railways that should be blamed for the failure of such a promising project, say activists. The drastic reduction in the number of trains and the constant delays have made the train to the airport an unreliable mode of reaching the airport, they add.
South Western Railway operated 10 trains a day to and from the halt station when it was inaugurated on January 4, 2021. However, the services were suspended from April-end to November first week following the pandemic. When the services reopened, instead of the 10, the trains halting at the airport were reduced to two.
SWR officials said that between January and April, only 2,098 passengers travelled, and it earned a ticketing revenue of ₹20,830. “The reason, the number of trains have been reduced is because of the electrification tracks between Yelahanka and Devanahalli. This work will be completed before the year-end, and then we will increase the number of trains as per the demand,” said an SWR spokesperson.
Experts in the city are not surprised at the low figures and SWR’s lack of interest in running the service. “Since the beginning, the trains run at odd hours and the frequency is not great either. Because the railway had shut down the service for some work shows there is a lack of consistency. It was obvious that the project would not be a success and will require more time to settle,” Srinivas Alavilli, head of civic participation of Janaagraha, a non-profit organisation working for urban governance, said.
Activists claim that the work on the suburban line to the airport has been delayed due to “bureaucratic egos”. The 41.40 km suburban line connecting Bengaluru city railway station to the airport via Yeshwantpur was approved by the Union Cabinet Committee of Economic Affairs in October 2020. Following this, K-RIDE (Karnataka Rail Infrastructure Development Company), a joint venture between the state and Centre, announced that the airport line would be a priority and be completed in three years.
However, following a meeting between the government and the Bengaluru Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL), K-RIDE changed its plan to develop the direct airport line first.
“Even though the BMRCL has not received approval for their airport line, they are asking K-RIDE not to prioritise the same. They are concerned that the sub-urban rail would affect their plans to have a metro line to the airport,” Sanjeev Dyamannavar, a rail activist, said.
With minimal land acquisition requirements, K-RIDE could have ensured that the train chugs to the airport terminal within the stipulated time of three years. But because of this competition, the people of Bengaluru have been denied convenient transport to the airport,” he added.
Activists also pointed at the lack of coordination between authorities responsible for public transport in the city. “The smooth integration of the bus, suburban rail and metro is the solution for providing a seamless transportation network. But the fact remains that there is a lack of coordination and an urgency to prioritise the work by these agencies,” Alavilli said.
Experts believe that a plan to effectively use both the sub-urban rail and metro is still not on the cards. A former Indian Railway official, on the condition of anonymity, raised flags over the current plan for the suburban rail network.
“If you look at the map of the proposed railway network, it is ‘urban rail’ rather than ‘suburban rail’ as it only reaches the edge of the city. Ideally, the suburban railway should have been connected to the district in the outskirts of Bengaluru like Tumkur and Chikkabalapur while metro should have been provided for commuting within the city,” he said.
Meanwhile, tickets to the train to the airport come with the warning that they would not be responsible for any delays. This careless attitude of the railways now means that except for the handful of people who take risk of using the occasional suburban train, citizens of Bengaluru will have to suffer the ordeal of travelling to the airport by road for a while.
